San Fer injunction approved

Arming police with another weapon in the fight against San Fernando Valley gangs, a judge approved a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the San Fer, a group prosecutors say has terrorized Northeast Valley residents for years.

In a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that lasted just a few minutes, Judge David P. Yaffe granted a joint request by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and county District Attorney Steve Cooley to create the region's largest gang injunction. The order restricts the movements of hundreds of gang members over 9.5 square miles and gives police broader arrest authority.

Yaffe looked out into a courtroom dotted with city and county lawyers and police awaiting a ruling, and asked for any opposition to the injunction.

"Any member of the San Fer here?" he asked.

There was no response.

"All right," Yaffe said before signing the order.

The injunction prohibits 900 members of the San Fer - one of the Valley's oldest and most violent gangs - from meeting in public, possessing graffiti tools such as spray-paint cans, and hanging out at the Sylmar Recreation Center or Sylmar Park.

Members also can't act as lookouts by whistling, yelling or signaling, and can't be in the presence of anyone who has an open container of alcohol in public.

The zone's boundaries are the 5 Freeway on the west, the 210 Freeway on the north and east, and the 118 Freeway on the south.

Previously, community members had complained that the injunction spread too far, folding in middle-class neighborhoods in Sylmar and San Fernando untouched by daily violence.

City Councilman Richard Alarcón, who represents the area, accused law enforcement of pushing an injunction without first going to the community.

And civil-rights groups argued that the injunction gives police broad authority to arrest gang members for hanging out with cohorts, even if they happen to be from the same family or attending the same gang-prevention group.

But neither the dozens of gang members served with notice of the proposed injunction earlier this year nor anyone else who voiced concerns showed up at Tuesday's hearing.

"We are appreciative of the care the court took," said Bruce Riordan, who oversees gang programs at the City Attorney's Office.

"An injunction like this is one valuable tool in suppressing gang violence and gang crime. If used properly and judiciously, it can help make a community safer."

Over the next several weeks, the Los Angeles Police Department will serve notice to more than two dozen gang members named in the injunction. And prosecutors will return to court to ask for a permanent order.

Last week, after several town-hall meetings, both the Sylmar and Mission Hills neighborhood councils backed the injunction.

Tammy Flores, vice president of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council, abstained from voting, but said she backs the injunction because "we need to get our community back."

But she said the injunction didn't need to be so large, noting that some areas inside the zone are relatively safe.

"We weren't given the opportunity to work with the City Attorney's Office and make any type of suggestions," Flores said. "How are we supposed to be part of the process? If we are told crime is down, how come we have one of the largest injunction zones in the community?"

Cooley and Delgadillo jointly filed the request in April, citing cases of intimidation of young people, the random shooting of a man baby-sitting his 1-year-old nephew and the beating of people walking on the street.

In the request, they painted a picture of a community under siege, with mothers scared to walk to the store and gang members accosting high-school students as they left campus.

The portrait angered some, who said they hardly recognized the Sylmar or San Fernando neighborhood they grew up in.

"The city attorney and the police captain played the fear card to pass this injunction in a community that has seen crime drop for seven straight years," said Alex Alonso, who operates www.streetgangs.com and is writing a dissertation on gang injunctions in Los Angeles.

He spoke at a neighborhood meeting in part organized by the Sylmar council before it voted.

"`Gang member' does not necessarily mean `criminal,' and what this gang injunction seeks to do is criminalize all 900 San Fer in the database," he said.

But police believe the San Fer hold deep ties to the Mexican Mafia and are a driving force behind the area's drug trade.

The injunction is the city's 37th and the Valley's fifth. Injunctions now cover 50 gangs in 75 square miles of the city. Since January 2007, police have cited 750 gang members for violating a gang injunction. Violations are misdemeanors that carry a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The other four gangs in the Valley that have injunctions are Blythe Street in Van Nuys, Langdon Street in North Hills, the Pacoima Project Boys and Canoga Park Alabama.

Riordan said officers will not arrest any gang members unless they have first been served with the injunction. And he noted that the city has created an appeals process for those wrongly placed on the list. So far, only a handful have applied, and none of the thousands of gang members on the list has been removed.

Still, Alarcó n and civil-rights attorneys argue that the injunction is heavy-handed and fails to make key exceptions for relatives.

"I support an injunction against the San Fer because I am well aware of the violence and negativity they are creating," Alarcón said. "On the other hand, I think that you have to keep an eye on this one because of its scope, because it may have unintended consequences."